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Indian cartoonist's arrest on sedition charges sparks outcry

NEW DELHI -- India finds itself in the middle of a new free-speech controversy after authorities arrested cartoonist and anti-corruption activist
Aseem Trivedi on sedition charges.

The move over the weekend came after Trivedi
displayed caricatures of India's constitution, parliament and the national
emblem on placards and posted them on a social networking site.

As outcry spread Monday among media and civic groups,
the police in Maharashtra state appeared to back down, telling Trivedi they
would let him go if he applied for bail. He refused, however, saying he
would remain in custody as a matter of principle. His next hearing is scheduled
for Sept. 24.

"If telling the truth makes me a traitor, then I am
one," Trivedi told reporters outside the court late Sunday on his way to a
hearing. "Even Mahatma Gandhi was called traitor, and if I am booked
under sedition for doing service to the nation, then I will continue to do
so."

Most of his allegedly seditious cartoons were displayed last
year on a website that Trivedi launched, called CartoonsAgainstCorruption.com. The government blocked
the site in December during a demonstration by anti-corruption leader Anna
Hazare.

Attempts to access the site Monday were greeted with the message "Sorry,
the website you were looking for is unavailable." [Several of his cartoons, signed Aseem, were available, however, on http://www.cartoonsagainstcorruption.blogspot.in/]
Some of Trivedi's cartoons also appeared on posters in December, during a
two-day protest led by Hazare.

Trivedi's arrest stems from a complaint filed at the time of
the protest by a Mumbai-based lawyer. But given India's overloaded, creaky
legal system, the case wasn't heard until last month, leading to his surrender
before the court this past weekend.

In recent months, the government has been on the defensive
over a string of corruption scandals involving the natural resource,
telecommunications, sports, real estate and defense industries, allegedly
amounting to tens of billions of dollars. The most recent session of Parliament
was blocked for weeks over "coal-gate," under which the government allegedly allocated
coal blocks under sweetheart deals. Officials have denied any wrongdoing.

As word of Trivedi's detention spread, lawyers,
anti-corruption activists, members of his family and social media voiced concern
over the government's use of India's British Empire-era sedition law. Supporters
also staged a demonstration in Trivedi's hometown, Kanpur.

"My opinion is that the cartoonist did nothing illegal,"
said Markandey Katju, chairman of the Press Council of India and a former
Supreme Court justice, in a representative comment. "In a democracy many
things are said, some truthful and others false."

In addition to the sedition charges, 25-year-old Trivedi has
been accused of displaying "ugly and obscene" content on his website. One cartoon
that has drawn particular ire from some critics featured the lions in India's national
emblem depicted as wolves with blood dripping from their mouths, suggesting
that corruption is injuring the nation. Another depicts a building resembling the Parliament as a huge toilet bowl.

The government said Monday it had no problem with people
expressing their opinions, but that disrespect for important national imagery would
not be taken lightly.

"We are not against democratic rights, we are all
for free speech," Minister for Information and Broadcasting Ambika Soni told
reporters. "But there is a thin line you draw between free speech and what can
be termed as offensive, especially against national symbols."

Some social media users argued that the government was giving
Trivedi more publicity with this crackdown than if it had just ignored him. "What
#AseemTrivedi could not do with his cartoons, our govt did by arresting him,"
said Twitter user @sidd_tr.

Others criticized New Delhi for going after the messenger and
cracking down on social media rather that allegedly corrupt officials. "Instead
of arresting Aseem Trivedi, the Government should arrest some of the cartoons
administering the country!" wrote Twitter user @Spicy_Treat.

In recent weeks, the government has blocked users of
Twitter, Facebook and mobile phone short messaging, accusing them of spreading
rumors following sectarian riots in the country’s northeast. In June, it threatened
to ban political cartoons from school textbooks. And in West Bengal state, its
coalition partner arrested a professor for forwarding on email a cartoon showing the
chief minister.

On the international front, the foreign minister earlier
this year threatened to lodge a formal protest with U.S. authorities after
comedian Jay Leno joked that Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney had
a new summer home, showing a picture of the Golden Temple in Amritsar,
considered the Sikhs' most sacred site.

And the government called for an apology and condemned as
tasteless the BBC program "Top Gear," after its hosts drove around
India making jokes about Indian food, clothes, trains and sanitation. In
particular, the show featured a ride in an aging Jaguar with a toilet fitted
into its trunk, a play on India's reputation for "Delhi belly." After
the segment aired, the Indian Embassy in London termed the program insensitive
and "replete with cheap jibes, tasteless humor."

Some of Trivedi’s supporters said his real offense in the government's
eye may be highlighting graft.

"Our son has done nothing wrong," his
mother, Pratibha Trivedi, told the NDTV news network. "I am proud of my son.
Corrupt leaders must be behind bars, not my son. His act cannot be called
unpatriotic."

Photo: Indian police officers men escort political cartoonist Aseem Trivedi to a court in
Mumbai on Monday after he was jailed on sedition charges over drawings mocking Indian government corruption. Credit: Rafiq Maqbool / Associated Press